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Dickinson State OC Schillinger rounds out Hauck’s coaching staff

MISSOULA — On National Signing Day Wednesday, Bobby Hauck said his coaching staff was complete with just one more coaching hire pending.

“We’ve got one more but all of this is played out. We have guys ready to be hired and they have to go through the university’s process so I don’t think we can talk about it until then,” Montana’s new head football coach said. “We don’t have any to go. We are just waiting on that.”

On Friday, Skyline Sports confirmed the 10th and final member of Hauck’s staff at Montana. Jace Schillinger will join Montana with a position yet to be confirmed but expected to be UM’s tight ends coach. The hiring is expected to be made official by UM sometime next week.

Montana safeties coach Shann Schillinger/ by Brooks Nuanez

Schillinger is the older brother of Montana safeties coach Shann Schillinger. Jace Schillinger comes to Montana after seven seasons as an assistant at NAIA Dickinson State, including the last four as the offensive coordinator of the Blue Hawks.

Over the last four seasons, Dickinson has broken several school records offensively, including for most points scored and yards gained in a season. The Blue Hawks have won three consecutive North Star Conference Championships and three straight appearances in the NAIA playoffs.

In 2013, Dickinson State averaged 221 yards of total offense per game. Last season, the Blue Hawks averaged 442.7 yards per game. Dickinson set a school record by averaging 37.6 points per game last fall. The offense, led by Hayden Gibson, also broke school records in passing attempts, passing completions, and passing yards.

Schillinger has 13 years of coaching experience at the college and high school levels. After wrapping up an All-American career as a running back at Dickson State in 2005, Schillinger began his coaching career at Billings Central. He also coached at Park High in Livingston before diving into the college ranks for the first time, joining North Dakota’s staff as the running backs coach in 2009, a spot he held for two seasons.

At UND, Schilinger coached Mitch Sutton and Josh Murray to All-Great West honors. Sutton also earned league Freshman of the Year honors before returning to his alma mater.

In 2015, Schillinger also served as Dickinson State’s head track and field coach. Both the men’s and women’s teams won the North Star Conference championships for the first time in 34 years.

Montana wide receiver Colin Bingham is expected to move to tight end under the new coaching staff/ by Brooks Nuanez

During his playing career, Schillinger helped the Blue Hawks to three straight DAC-10 championships from 2002 and 2004. Schillinger earned All-American honors, the 2004 NAIA Champions of Character Award and was also chosen as the DAC-10 Conference Football Athlete of the Year. He currently holds twelve school records, including the school’s all-time leader in rushing yards (4,149), all-purpose yards (4,719), and touchdowns scored (53). In 2014 he was inducted into the Blue Hawk Hall of Fame.

Schillinger comes to Montana as part of one of the Treasure State’s most successful coaching families. Schillinger’s uncle, Don, is second in Montana prep history in wins (318) between his time at Baker and Ekalaka, including six state championships. Jim Schillinger, Jace and Shann’s father, is a long-time coach at Baker in football, basketball and track, spending 28 seasons at the school.

Shann Schillinger played four seasons in the NFL with the Atlanta Falcons and Tennessee Titans before diving into coaching. Shann Schillinger spent 2014 as the special teams coordinator and wide receivers coach at Dickinson State, 2015 as a graduate assistant at Nebraska before returning to his alma mater to coach safeties.

Since taking over as Montana’s head coach, Hauck has hired Timm Rosenbach as his offensive coordinator, Kent Baer as his defensive coordinator and Brent Pease as his assistant head coach and wide receivers coach. Hauck added C.J. Cox as his cornerbacks coach and Barry Sacks as his defensive line coach. Hauck retained Shann Schillinger, Chad Germer (offensive line) and Justin Green (recruiting coordinator/running backs).

The staff has cumulatively close to 200 years coaching experience with the addition of Jace Schillinger.

“We have a bunch of guys who know how to get them lined up which will bode well for our team,” Hauck said.

About Colter Nuanez

Colter is the co-founder and senior writer for Skyline Sports. After spending six years in the newspaper industry with stops at the Missoulian, the Ellensburg Daily Record and the Bozeman Daily Chronicle, the former Washington Newspaper Association Sportswriter of the Year partnered with Kevin Miller to launch Bobcat Beat, an online newsgathering website focusing on daily coverage of Montana State athletics. In August of 2014, the Nuanez brothers merged their passions for sports journalism and founded Skyline Sports.